The article, “In-Vitro Ultrasound Temperature Monitoring in Bovine Liver during RF Ablation Therapy using Autocorrelation”, Huihua Kenny Chiang et al., pages 1439 to 1442, IEEE Ultrasonic Symposium, 2002 discloses an apparatus for determining a two-dimensional temperature distribution in bovine liver tissue based on radio frequency (RF) ultrasound signals. The two-dimensional temperature map is used for thermal dosage control and real-time temperature monitoring during RF thermal therapy.
This apparatus has the drawback that an ablation therapy is not directly monitored, i.e. the apparatus does not provide direct information about the ablation status of the bovine liver tissue. Only the two-dimensional temperature map is determined, which only gives an indirect and inaccurate impression about the ablation status. A control of the ablation based on the two-dimensional temperature map is therefore also inaccurate.